Ottawa, November 14 (IANS). The first case of H5N1 i.e. bird flu in humans has been found in Canada. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has confirmed this.
A teenager in British Columbia was hospitalized on Nov. 9 and found to be infected with H5 avian influenza, PHAC said in a statement. On Wednesday, it was confirmed that he was infected with H5N1 virus.
The agency said genomic sequencing results showed the virus is related to avian influenza H5N1 circulating in poultry in British Columbia.
No other human infections have been detected so far, he said. Investigations are continuing to find out how the teen became infected.
According to the report of Xinhua news agency, the outbreak of H5N1 continues in cattle in America, but no case of bird flu has been reported in cattle in Canada. Apart from this, no concrete evidence of bird flu virus has been found in milk samples either.
PHAC reported that the clade of H5N1 virus found in cattle in the United States is different from the virus found in the human case reported in British Columbia.
Based on current evidence, the risk of avian influenza infection in people remains low, but PHAC said in a statement that the risk of bird flu infection is higher for people not exposed to infected animals.
–IANS
FM/AKJ
